The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-03-23
COTTON PLANTING.
CHEAT MONEY TIE GREATEST NEED
OF OUR FARMERS.


OF OUR FARMERS.
Ready Capital Mast be Engaged !" th'
tsu>incss 20 Eeaci. Swccc->--Ihe Lien >Hs
tenn ard Expensive Leans Won't ANSWER
Views OF 4 Planter.
The following article OF the subject O.
cotton planting, from tie pen OF
Wateree planter, appeared in the Column
bia Register:
s.What man is there, ii ycu ask iol
bread viii give You stone; If you ash
for fish, give you a seypent::
When the early Virginia coioni>ts aP'
Piled to the authorities al home Tor some
consideration IN the matter OF churches
and schools, suggesting the benefit it
would be to their souls, the reply OF the
profane regency that governed the VIZ,
ginia planters was: s:Danlr your souls,
plant tobacco Change tobacco for
cotton and you have much the same re.
ply practically given to the poor devil
WHO is trying to make en- honest hvlnS
by cultivating the kindly sol: OF South
Carolina. make cotton is the reply
to every application for advances that
are necessary to carry OF this business,
as things now stand, by those who con-
troll the money of the county. No cot
ton, no advances, diversified agriculture,
GROW grasses, raise stock, wheat, barley,
oats and rye. You improvidelt, thrlts.,
less devil, call yourself a farmer, and
plant cotton to buy everything else:
True, and pity tbs, true; and Why IS this
thus? Simply because this power that
rules the country absolutely tnds its
interest in having cotton planted to the
exclusion. practically, OF everything g
else; and under the pressure OF that la~
the farmer has his financial he wo: ed
out of him as completely rs er1 We
Span;ard did the best blood OF Aztec a.4.I
Inca in the mines of Mexico ard Peru.
The emancipation OF the Southern
negro left nothing in the HANDS OF the
planter but his lands, with ittle or no
market value, at least not eaough 70
make it legitimate basis Of mercantile
credit. The national banks refused to
lend money on the security OF real estate,
their charters forbidding. The banks
found it better for their interest to get
as lar from the planters as possible, and
interposed the commission merchant
between them, who acted as strikers for
the bank, while making their oNn money
out of it. The bank gives acconlncda-
tion to the city merchant, the merchant
TO such firms Ii the country towns ana
crossroads as suit their purposes, aI.o At
last the farmer (bc he Of E&ag pio"s TO
the nigger with his OK takes It as he
can get it, with the condition precedent
of $50 much cotton" The cotton comes,
but under this system tue planter Is
always left. He Grags u lengthening
chain. When he started after 5he war,
we assume, he had something left. How
many of that class have anything now:
# he has, how long vii! he keep it? 1t
Is but question of time and she III. :.
Who or what is 70 blame for this? No
individual certainly. He WHO prospers,
while the planter at the other end OF the
line goes to the wall, does 1t IL {alr ana
open market, taxing advantage Of the
sorndings made to his lands--for s'the
stars in their courses fight against
Sisera" his (the capitalists holds the
cards that wins, and controls the situa-
ton, as tee Jews did Europe in the Mid
die Ages, by having ell the money and
all the credit.
The man who gets money at six or
eight per cent. and lends it at fifteen or
twenty or twenty-five getting it often,
in the first instance, upon the collateral
pledge of real estate Of the man he lends
It to- must so up as other goes down.
So, then, as far as We can see, this dis
crimmation in the price Of money to the
planter, IS the handicap that weighs him
down. He makes his staple pretty much
to the exclusion OF everything else, with
money, that costs him anything from y
to 25 per cent. one way OF another,
whilst the man who buys it, carries on
business with money that costs il New
York or Liverpool and per cent. less.
Those who handle cotton make money
out of it. Go into the streets Ct any of
the country towns in the cotton region
in December, and every store is full,
and doing roaring business on and out
OF cotton, while every pound Of it cost
the man who made It more than it sold
for. It costs $500 to pick a bale OF 500
pounds. This alone pours into the
country cotton marts very large
amount of hard cash IN the space Of two
and half months. Add to this the
seed cotton traffic, and you have some
thing that accounts for the milk IN the
cocoanut." So much more can be made
by those who have money, by lending II
in advances to the man who makes the
cotton, than by planting, that even
planters themselves, who may have 1t,
let it so that way. The tendency seems
to be the absorption OF all the large
estates in the country. by the wealthy
city capitalists. This is as natural as
inevitable, and in many cases the soonci
this is done the better for all concerned
They know how it is themselves. They
have the means Of overcoming the
difficulties CT the situation, and may sue
ceed. We wish them well. II IS Nc
fault of theirs that the Old system OF the
South should pass away, and the ole
estates of the country be carried on 5y
an s:absentee system, like a sugar eStat;
in British Guiana, or a tea farm cn tl'
slopes of the Hiclalayas. Free labor &c
aulres k.lge amount OF floating capita
80 move and control il. Il WAS property
said, in old times, that the planter E&i
no business with banks, ms labor neiE2